Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
This performance is meh. It sounds like the album track probably sounds good, but I'm not impressed with this performance. I'll be charitable and say maybe it's due to the low quality of the audio stream.
 

What a great find .. someone will get fired at cantos for that :) having that hanging it out on the servers already ...


But if this is true ... I am actually more furious and think people will turn even more to piracy ...

First we buy crippled tracks ... then we shall pay more to uncripple them ??? yikes ...

How many more times are we paying for the same music ??? first you bought the vinyl .. then you bought the same music on CD, because it was cool and smaller ... now on iTMS .. because maybe your CD collection is stuck in storage or it is super scratched by now ... and now .. give us a bit more money to give it to you DRM free ... ha ha ha
 
the big questions is - how much extra is this premium?

$1.50 for double the sound quality and no DRM is a price worth paying IMO. Anymore than that then forget it.
 
I want to know how much the 'premium' is.

Good question. I hadn't even thought that they might charge more for non-drm songs, maybe that's why they upped the sound quality so they could justify the higher price, which was probably demanded by the label in order to agree to no drm. It's quite a circular situation.
 
The let-down of a non-Apple event

After watching the horrendously produced Adobe CS3 "announcement" and then this (audio-only) announcement thus far, I'm realizing how good Apple is at this stuff and how I'm expecting that level of production at any event.
 
"Premium download product"

I can't believe Steve Jobs capitulated to higher prices for DRM free. Is that what 84% of consumers asked for? I don't think so.
 
Higher price, though

From the press release:
"Apple has announced that iTunes will make individual AAC format tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with their DRM removed, at a price of $1.29/€1.29/£0.99. iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/€0.99/£0.79 for standard sound quality tracks with DRM still applied. Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price. Consumers who have already purchased standard tracks or albums with DRM will be able to upgrade their digital music for $0.30/€0.30/£0.20 per track. All EMI music videos will also be available on the iTunes Store DRM-free with no change in price."

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/13165/
 
Apple has announced that iTunes will make individual AAC format tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with their DRM removed, at a price of $1.29/€1.29/£0.99. iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/€0.99/£0.79 for standard sound quality tracks with DRM still applied. Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price. Consumers who have already purchased standard tracks or albums with DRM will be able to upgrade their digital music for $0.30/€0.30/£0.20 per track. All EMI music videos will also be available on the iTunes Store DRM-free with no change in price.

From EMI's press release. So albums are now a better deal. Upgrading at 20p a track... it could be worse...
 
Well EMI have let the cat out of the bag already, check out http://www.emigroup.com/Default.htm and it mentions the DRM free annoucements and press release. Disappointed that its looking like its a premium product rather than just a shift towards DRM-free. Still its a step in the right direction!
 
Will be the price be the same for the two options???

Most likely not. Or do you think that they will offer them at same price, and consumers would be thinking "I could either get the hi-quality DRM-free song for 99 cents, or I could get the DRM'ed low-quality version for 99 cents. Which should I choose...."
 
the big questions is - how much extra is this premium?

$1.50 for double the sound quality and no DRM is a price worth paying IMO. Anymore than that then forget it.
It sounds to me that they will offer both DRM and non-DRM side by side, with the non-DRM stuff being sold at a premium.
 
Press Release

Press release:

EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire

Apple's iTunes store to be the first online music store to sell EMI's new downloads

London, 2 April 2007 -- EMI Music today announced that it is launching new premium downloads for retail on a global basis, making all of its digital repertoire available at a much higher sound quality than existing downloads and free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions.

The new higher quality DRM-free music will complement EMI's existing range of standard DRM-protected downloads already available. From today, EMI's retailers will be offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality. EMI is releasing the premium downloads in response to consumer demand for high fidelity digital music for use on home music systems, mobile phones and digital music players. EMI's new DRM-free products will enable full interoperability of digital music across all devices and platforms.

Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group, said, "Our goal is to give consumers the best possible digital music experience. By providing DRM-free downloads, we aim to address the lack of interoperability which is frustrating for many music fans. We believe that offering consumers the opportunity to buy higher quality tracks and listen to them on the device or platform of their choice will boost sales of digital music.

"Apple have been a true pioneer in digital music, and we are delighted that they share our vision of an interoperable market that provides consumers with greater choice, quality, convenience and value for money."

"Selling digital music DRM-free is the right step forward for the music industry," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "EMI has been a great partner for iTunes and is once again leading the industry as the first major music company to offer its entire digital catalogue DRM-free."

Apple's iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) is the first online music store to receive EMI's new premium downloads. Apple has announced that iTunes will make individual AAC format tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with their DRM removed, at a price of $1.29/€1.29/£0.99. iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/€0.99/£0.79 for standard sound quality tracks with DRM still applied. Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price. Consumers who have already purchased standard tracks or albums with DRM will be able to upgrade their digital music for $0.30/€0.30/£0.20 per track. All EMI music videos will also be available on the iTunes Store DRM-free with no change in price.

EMI is introducing a new wholesale price for premium single track downloads, while maintaining the existing wholesale price for complete albums. EMI expects that consumers will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free downloads from a variety of digital music stores within the coming weeks, with each retailer choosing whether to sell downloads in AAC, WMA, MP3 or other unprotected formats of their choice. Music fans will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free digital music for personal use, and listen to it on a wide range of digital music players and music-enabled phones.

EMI's move follows a series of experiments it conducted recently. Norah Jones's "Thinking About You", Relient K's "Must've Done Something Right", and Lily Allen's "Littlest Things" were all made available for sale in the MP3 format in trials held at the end of last year.

EMI Music will continue to employ DRM as appropriate to enable innovative digital models such as subscription services (where users pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to music), super-distribution (allowing fans to share music with their friends) and time-limited downloads (such as those offered by ad-supported services).

Nicoli added: "Protecting the intellectual property of EMI and our artists is as important as ever, and we will continue to work to fight piracy in all its forms and to educate consumers. We believe that fans will be excited by the flexibility that DRM-free formats provide, and will see this as an incentive to purchase more of our artists' music."
 
I want to know how much the 'premium' is.

exactly ... it is in the word 'premium' ... which means 'more money' usually

ok .. 2 tracks over .. now they have some 90 mins clip something ??? see ya guys in 90 mins (stream fading in and out)
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.